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I have a couple of low level Traders, and it's kind of difficult to learn Trading at these levels. I understand it gets better once you can sell bulk gems or start a shop, but I guess my main problem is the concept behind running routes.
When I think of a Trader in the real world, I tend to picture people on Wall Street buying and selling stocks or commodities. Maybe a shop owner, or the supply manager at a store. What I definitely never picture when I think of a Trader in the real world is a FedEx driver. Heck, in DragonRealms we're not even the driver. We just carry the paperwork.
Some people I think of in DR when I think of an NPC Trader are shop owners, the people giving work orders, the people buying pelts/gems from adventurers, and the people buying/selling supplies at an outpost.
The PC parallel to those (in my opinion) mostly exist. We can eventually own a shop (though it'd be neat if we could eventually have a permanent store and pay employees to run it 24/7), we can represent adventurers selling pelts/gems, and we can sort of interact with the outposts buying and selling supplies.
My suggestion is to bring Traders more in line with the people doing commerce, and move away from the people doing the shipping. By doing a few things. 1) Update the commodity system. 2) Allow completing workorders to teach Trading.
1) Make the commodities system act more like the real world commodities market. We buy the rights to some amount of it, and then it gets shipped to a warehouse that we own/rent. When we sell it, someone picks it up and ships it to the new owner (and we learn Trading if we made a profit from the sale). Some commodities will age and go bad if you don't turn over fast enough, or sometimes there are random floods or other disasters that will damage/destroy goods (and maybe an insurance system could be put in place).
2) I'm not sure how work orders work currently, but is it possible to get a work order and hire someone else to make the product for you, then complete the work order? That seems very Traderly to me. Subcontracting. Even if it's not, the providing of a good to someone seems very Traderly to me. I also think Traders should get a bonus to the amount made by work orders (if they don't), similar to how we get a bonus to gem selling. I think this would also make Trading scale a lot better. Right now the first ten or fifteen levels are painfully hard to learn Trading (after Mags stops giving you branch experience).
Elemental Lord Opieus, Expert Warrior Mage of Elanthia
"For a bunch of radical empiricists, the Philosophers' system relies on a whole lot of faith." ~Armifer
<<What I definitely never picture when I think of a Trader in the real world is a FedEx driver.>>
that's because you're thinking of the modern age, where there has been a division between the merchant and the transportation of goods.
If you look back in history, take the case of the explorers to the "new world", when they found America, they were looking for a TRADE ROUTE to china. Look up the old "spice" or "silk" route of traders who would travel across the middle east by camel and bring the goods to Europe thereby. Take a look at the old Trading city of Venice, and the merchant ships that conducted trade around the then-known world.
And, you also have the unfortunate example going into the 1600s-1800's of the slave trade, which traded slaves/rum/sugar through the west indies.
Preces meae non sunt dignae;Sed tu bonus fac benigne;Ne perenni cremer igne [Dies Irae]
that's because you're thinking of the modern age, where there has been a division between the merchant and the transportation of goods.
If you look back in history, take the case of the explorers to the "new world", when they found America, they were looking for a TRADE ROUTE to china. Look up the old "spice" or "silk" route of traders who would travel across the middle east by camel and bring the goods to Europe thereby. Take a look at the old Trading city of Venice, and the merchant ships that conducted trade around the then-known world.
And, you also have the unfortunate example going into the 1600s-1800's of the slave trade, which traded slaves/rum/sugar through the west indies.
Preces meae non sunt dignae;Sed tu bonus fac benigne;Ne perenni cremer igne [Dies Irae]
>>1) Make the commodities system act more like the real world commodities market.
A new commodities system is being developed and it sounds awesome. I'm afraid to touch elanthipedia right now or I'd give you the post link.
>>2) I'm not sure how work orders work currently, but is it possible to get a work order and hire someone else to make the product for you, then complete the work order? That seems very Traderly to me. Subcontracting.
Sounds like a pretty cool idea to me. :)
-- Player of Eyuve
A new commodities system is being developed and it sounds awesome. I'm afraid to touch elanthipedia right now or I'd give you the post link.
>>2) I'm not sure how work orders work currently, but is it possible to get a work order and hire someone else to make the product for you, then complete the work order? That seems very Traderly to me. Subcontracting.
Sounds like a pretty cool idea to me. :)
-- Player of Eyuve
<<2) I'm not sure how work orders work currently, but is it possible to get a work order and hire someone else to make the product for you, then complete the work order? That seems very Traderly to me. Subcontracting.>>
at least in carving, for things that require two "ingredients"- i.e. furniture, it is.
Get a lowbie to make the slab and the rod for you, and once those two "ingredients" are finished - you put 'em together.
Or in forging, get someone to make ingots.
Preces meae non sunt dignae;Sed tu bonus fac benigne;Ne perenni cremer igne [Dies Irae]
at least in carving, for things that require two "ingredients"- i.e. furniture, it is.
Get a lowbie to make the slab and the rod for you, and once those two "ingredients" are finished - you put 'em together.
Or in forging, get someone to make ingots.
Preces meae non sunt dignae;Sed tu bonus fac benigne;Ne perenni cremer igne [Dies Irae]
>>1) Make the commodities system act more like the real world commodities market.
>A new commodities system is being developed and it sounds awesome. I'm afraid to touch elanthipedia right now or I'd give you the post link.
Why link E-pedia (which seems to be recently brought backup), when you can link here to the source?
Starting post:
http://forums.play.net/forums/DragonRealms/The%20Traders/General%20Discussions%20--%20Traders/view/1167
And the rest of that thread.
The primary problem I have with caravan routes, is that 99.9% of it is the contract system, which, yes, is more like being a grunt employee of a shipping company, whereas as (high-circle?) adventurers, we should be more like the managers or officers of said shipping company, with charge over a good bit of responsibility.
And the current commodities system is too anemic.
Naniaki
>>Actually an opinion cannot be changed or corrected. Nice try back of line.-VERATHOR
>>But it can be wrong.-Starlear
>A new commodities system is being developed and it sounds awesome. I'm afraid to touch elanthipedia right now or I'd give you the post link.
Why link E-pedia (which seems to be recently brought backup), when you can link here to the source?
Starting post:
http://forums.play.net/forums/DragonRealms/The%20Traders/General%20Discussions%20--%20Traders/view/1167
And the rest of that thread.
The primary problem I have with caravan routes, is that 99.9% of it is the contract system, which, yes, is more like being a grunt employee of a shipping company, whereas as (high-circle?) adventurers, we should be more like the managers or officers of said shipping company, with charge over a good bit of responsibility.
And the current commodities system is too anemic.
Naniaki
>>Actually an opinion cannot be changed or corrected. Nice try back of line.-VERATHOR
>>But it can be wrong.-Starlear
>>Why link E-pedia (which seems to be recently brought backup), when you can link here to the source?
Sorry. Because that's where I go to look for archived GM announcements. The search there is slightly easier.
But yes, can also link to the forums. I suppose I was just lazy. Glad you go the thread. :)
-- Player of Eyuve
Sorry. Because that's where I go to look for archived GM announcements. The search there is slightly easier.
But yes, can also link to the forums. I suppose I was just lazy. Glad you go the thread. :)
-- Player of Eyuve
Can search individual folders by author "DR-", and it'll get most of the red-names, except for the ones that are "SIMU-".
That's what I did in the general folder to find it.
Naniaki
P.S. While I appreciate E-pedia for its broad archiving of GM Mechanics posts, they are becoming so numerous, and occasionally the important text does not relate to the title of the post which it is archived by, that it is making them sometimes hard to find specific posts in the GM Mechanics Category. Currently, there are 688 posts archived on E-pedia, just in the GM Mechanics Posts category.
>>Actually an opinion cannot be changed or corrected. Nice try back of line.-VERATHOR
>>But it can be wrong.-Starlear
That's what I did in the general folder to find it.
Naniaki
P.S. While I appreciate E-pedia for its broad archiving of GM Mechanics posts, they are becoming so numerous, and occasionally the important text does not relate to the title of the post which it is archived by, that it is making them sometimes hard to find specific posts in the GM Mechanics Category. Currently, there are 688 posts archived on E-pedia, just in the GM Mechanics Posts category.
>>Actually an opinion cannot be changed or corrected. Nice try back of line.-VERATHOR
>>But it can be wrong.-Starlear
>P.S. While I appreciate E-pedia for its broad archiving of GM Mechanics posts, they are becoming so numerous, and occasionally the important text does not relate to the title of the post which it is archived by, that it is making them sometimes hard to find specific posts in the GM Mechanics Category.
That's why I created a method to see what subjects posts relate to.
Go to the page listing the subject in question, then check at the bottom to see if it has the listing widget.
If it does not, go to the bottom left and look for the "What links here" link. Once there, simply change the dropdown menu next to "Namespace" to read "Post" and click Go.
All hail Elanthipedia (dot org!)
Weapons for Sale:
http://www.elanthipedia.org/wiki/User:Caraamon#Wares
Hunta Talna Kortok, built by Gor'Togs, for Gor'Togs
http://www.angelfire.com/rpg2/caraamon/home.html
Combat Balance List:
http://tinyurl.com/DRBalance
That's why I created a method to see what subjects posts relate to.
Go to the page listing the subject in question, then check at the bottom to see if it has the listing widget.
If it does not, go to the bottom left and look for the "What links here" link. Once there, simply change the dropdown menu next to "Namespace" to read "Post" and click Go.
All hail Elanthipedia (dot org!)
Weapons for Sale:
http://www.elanthipedia.org/wiki/User:Caraamon#Wares
Hunta Talna Kortok, built by Gor'Togs, for Gor'Togs
http://www.angelfire.com/rpg2/caraamon/home.html
Combat Balance List:
http://tinyurl.com/DRBalance
